What are the first movings of repentance in the heart of an unbeliever?

Mike Davenport explains in this video that a sinner doesn’t see the idolatry of their heart and the severity of their own sins. A person who is dead doesn’t know he is dead. The Spirit must come and breathe upon us and give them life so that they can see their sin and the offense that it is against a holy God.

Unbelievers begin to see God for who He is. The Spirit gives them a heart to see and Christ becomes precious to them. They see that they have offended God. These mark the first signs of repentance upon an unbeliever.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (NKJV) – “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

First, as an unbeliever, Ephesians 2 describes us as dead in trespasses and sins. We don't see the idolatry of our own heart. We don't see our sins, just as a person lying dead in a grave doesn't know that he's dead. And So the Spirit must come and must breathe upon us and give us life so that we can see our sin and the offense that it is against a holy God. And so we see ourselves and we see God as who He really is.

And then the Spirit gives us a heart to respond to what we see. And Christ becomes precious to us. And we see that we have offended the God, the judge of all the earth, that He is the Creator and the King. We have offended Him. And so that's the first moving of repentance is there upon an unbeliever.

But then there's also repentance that's necessary in the heart of a believer. But that too comes by the Holy Spirit. Christ said, when I go away, I will send the Spirit to you and he will convince the world of sin, convict the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment to come. So it's the work of the Spirit to show sin, to reveal sin, but also to reveal righteousness and to reveal the judgment that rests upon those who continue in that sin and will not turn to righteousness.